Rand falls to dollar; yen sees gains

The South African rand dropped to a 5-month low versus the US dollar Thursdasy and fell against all major currencies after the South African Reserve Bank held the repurchase rate at 11 percent and on reports that inflation reached 8.6 percent there in December.

The rand was as low as 7.5576 to the US dollar during the session in Johannesburg and was at 7.4805 to the dollar at shortly after 1 p.m. in New York.

The yen had its best monthly gain versus the dollar in five years as investors spent most of the month avoiding risk when equities markets had trouble staying in positive territory.

With a gain of 4.8 percent versus the greenback in January, the yen traded at ¥106.3900 to the dollar in early afternoon trade in New York while it was at ¥157.9518 to the euro and at ¥211.5563 to the pound.

The US dollar traded at $1.4846 to the euro in early afternoon trade in New York, higher than Wednesday’s close; however, it lost 1.6 percent to the shared currency during the month.

Despite the day’s gain against the euro, the outlook for the dollar against the euro remains shifted toward weakness after the Labor Department reported that first-time unemployment claims rose by 69,000 to 375,000 in the week ending 26 January.

Story link: Rand falls to dollar; yen sees gains